The River and the Moon is a tale of two people from two very different walks of life. Claudia Darren is a popular movie star, and Alvin Masters is a rural postman from Whitetail, Montana. Although worlds apart, they share a sense of inner turmoil and profound lonliness. Through an odd set of circumstances, they exchange letters and become fans of each other's lifestyles. He admires her stardom and wealth, and she admires his fierce independence. Claudia begins work on a big budget picture for Crescent Studios, a financially ailing film company. Its unscrupulous head is a well-placed, thug named Ernie Katz. His role is to siphon all the money he can from Crescent and then sell it. To do this, he needs a big screen success to entice investors to purchase Crescent and assure a large profit for a New York syndicate which hired him. To provide a solid guarantee on the movie, he hires Claudia as the lead. Then as a further assurance, he engages a hit man named Oliver Templeton to become her boyfriend. Katz and Templeton hatch a plan to kill Claudia when the filming ends. The murder will appear as suicide, and her grieving public will flock to the box office with tears in their eyes to see her for the last time. Fortunately, Claudia becomes aware of the plot on the final day of filming and is able to escape Oliver Templeton with only moments to spare. For months, she cris-crosses the country on the run, while Templeton stays only steps behind her. After several near-fatal encounters, she ends up in Whitetail, Montana, where she at last meets Alvin Masters. Together they stage a last ditch attempt to save her life. They also discover a spiritual and romantic closeness which baffles even themselves.